• Brooke Owens Fellow, Class of 2023

• University of California - Berkeley, History of Science, ‘26

• Host Institution: Space News

• Mentor: Danielle Wood

• Brookie Mentor: TBD

Miriam is a current freshman studying the History of Science at the University of California, Berkeley, with minors in Journalism and Creative Writing. Her particular focus is on the history of aerospace innovation and policies. Still, she can never say no to a course on alchemy. Through her course of study, Miriam explores the biases and influences on aerospace policy that the Cold War left behind. As a recent immigrant from Poland, she has a firsthand perspective of both the Eastern European and American angles of this matter. She hopes to work to alleviate some of these international tensions in her future career in space policy.

Miriam is passionate about making information equitable and accessible, which she translated through her work in journalism and education. Having served within the Opinion section of her High School’s paper as both a writer and editor, she found the most rewarding aspect was through being able to share ideas and start conversations on various topics. Her fondest memories from her time with the publication were when she had the opportunity to mentor younger writers. Miriam additionally volunteers with the Oakland Public School Fund, devoting a few hours a week in Oakland classrooms to improving access to educational equity and helping foster a love for learning with students.

Outside of her studies, Miriam is a member of the Kappa Alpha Pi Pre-Law fraternity, does research in Biological Anthropology studying cradle-boarded babies, and has been working on launching her own DeCal course next semester on Space Law. She also works with the team at SBC International’s Summer Boarding Course at Oxford College. However, she finds the most peace with a warm cup of tea and a good book (and highly recommends Kazou Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go)!

Having been a writer since she could hold a pencil, she finds herself using this skill to navigate the geopolitical and societal conflicts around her. With recognition from the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, creative writing has always been one of her greatest passions. Last spring, her poem, Kintsugi, on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, won first place in its category in a county-wide spoken word poetry competition. Miriam has further begun to dip her pen into works centered around space policy, but those have yet to see the light of day!

As a Brooke Owens Fellow, Miriam is incredibly excited to be joining the team at Space News, and having the opportunity to merge her love of writing with her desire to make a difference within the aerospace community.